On 12 and 13 December, the Mid-Term Conference of the ActEU project took place in Brussels under the guiding theme ‘Building trust and tackling polarisation in Europe’ at the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA). This has initiated the second phase of our project.
The conference was complemented by a workshop with the Civil Society Network, in which civil society actors from all over Europe took part. The focus was on the exchange between science and practice: in addition to the presentation and discussion of our initial research results, exciting progress towards the development of toolkits for political actors as well as the education sector was made.
The conference focused on strengthening democracy in Europe, in particular on building trust and overcoming polarisation. In four sessions, initial project results, challenges of representative democracy, factors for trust and engagement as well as the effects of polarisation on democratic norms were discussed.
The following day’s workshop with the Civil Society Network from across Europe focussed on the development of toolkits for schools, civil society and political actors based on our research findings. Democracy labs were emphasised as a key format for actively involving young people in democratic discussions and supporting ongoing project activities. The project team from Duisburg presented the format of the democracy labs as well as initial results from Germany and Slovenia, which the team from the Chair of European Integration and European Politics has been executed in recent weeks.
We would like to thank TEPSA for organising this event, all the participants for joining us in Brussels and taking part in the conference and the CSN-Workshop. We are looking forward to all further activities of the project!
You can find the full conference programme here: Open programme.